Queens of the Stone Age have returned with their ninth album. Perfecth, which drops October 30. The record's name was born out of frontman Josh Homme's belief that the word 'perfect' does not truly exist or reflect reality. The quintet's new album explores different forms of love through nine songs. 10 Magazine Australia spoke to guitarist Troy Van Leeuwen about making the album and the band's upcoming Australian headline tour:

I love the singles so far from the album, especially Where the Goth Girls At? Tell me about making this album, how the process works for you now, and how you think you’re evolving as musicians and songwriters at this point.

I’m glad you like the records. We do too. I would say it’s a snapshot in time, but that wouldn’t be entirely true because some of the songs have been around for a while. In some ways, it’s like these songs have finally arrived at this particular time and place after being around for more than 10 years. Right now, I think we’re at a point where we really want to play our favourite music, the music we hear in our heads.

We have this reputation as a heavier band, and that’s cool. We can still do that, but I think at this point in our lives, it’s nice to spread out a little and give ourselves some space. We can say things plainly, be more upfront, and not try to dress everything up so much with poetry. A lot of the emotions are really out on the sleeve, and the lyrics are very much in plain sight. It’s nice for us to not overthink things and just let them be.

Do you still have a similar dynamic in the studio to the one you had 25 years ago?

Every time we make a record, it’s different. In the past, we would work things out in the desert and then come back into town to record everything, either at our place or somewhere we were familiar with.

This time, we decided to start somewhere different. We began recording in New Orleans, which is another one of our favourite cities. That was pretty cool because none of us had really gone out of town to make a record before. I have a home studio, and we’ve been in Los Angeles and the desert forever. It was nice to have a different scenery.

Can you hear that in the music? Does putting yourselves in a less familiar environment change the energy?

Yeah, a little bit. Putting yourself somewhere more uncomfortable, or at least somewhere you’re not so familiar with, and seeing how things go can be interesting. We were in New Orleans right before Mardi Gras, and the city was bubbling. The energy was really electric. We’d work all day, then walk outside and there’d be a parade of local musicians doing their thing. There are so many great musicians there, so it was nice to get out of our environment a little bit.

Was there obvious lyrical inspiration? Were there particular things you intentionally wanted to say on this album?

I don’t want to speak for Joshua, but he’s got to sing what’s real to him. I would say this record is very open and raw for him, but also liberating in a way.

As the musicians in this band, we all understand our roles. You have to serve the song, and the singer needs to believe what he’s singing. If he can’t believe it, the rest of us are kind of screwed!

For him, there were a lot of notebooks and a lot of writing things down. But there was no shortage of real stuff going on that I think has been expressed in the songs. I think it’s important to express yourself.

Is there a song on the record you’re particularly proud of, whether it’s what you achieved together as a band or your own performance?

I’d say there are a couple of songs that describe the breadth of what we’re trying to do right now. One of them is Easy Street. To me, that really felt like something we’d never done before. It’s right there in the title: we just let it be. We didn’t overthink it. It kind of happened. There was no attempt to hide anything. It’s just a nice, beautiful song that feels good, but it also has some darkness in the lyrics.

The other one is Run Away from the Mob. That’s one of the songs I mentioned earlier that’s been around for a while. We started tracking it during the ...Like Clockwork sessions, so the performance is actually from back then. Somehow, we kept everything exactly as it was instrumentally. Then Josh ended up singing it one day, and it just felt right.

It shows how something from so far back can still be valid, turn up at the very last minute, and make you go, “Yes, I belong here. This song matters.” I like finishing things. Lord knows, all of us as musicians in this band have lots of music that gets left unfinished all the time. It’s nice to have something like that come back around, feel great, and finally be finished.

In terms of the visual world for this album, how involved are you in that side of things? What inspired the artwork and videos?

The artwork has a pretty simple explanation: it’s just us on the cover, with some nice-looking artwork. It doesn’t say much beyond presenting the songs we’re putting out. The band is on the cover, and that’s that.

A lot of what makes our sound what it is comes from getting into a room together and making things happen. There’s magic there. A lot of the time, we’re just trying to capture that and bottle it up.

As far as videos go, I don’t have a lot of ideas when it comes to that stuff, but I got my friend Tony Wolski involved. He and I work together in his band, The Armed. They’re like an art collective. Tony’s a great video director, a great songwriter, and a fucking crazy singer.

I learned about his abilities through working with them. We did this film called Ultrapop: Live At the Masonic Temple in Detroit. I watched him work on it and perform in it, and I thought, “This guy knows what he’s doing.” He was instrumental in making these videos look as amazing as they do. We didn’t really have a big budget, so he worked some magic to get them looking and feeling as great as they do. He pulled favours and made sure his name looked good, too!

As far as I’m concerned, the best idea wins. I’m not usually a video person. I’ll just show up and be in it, and that’s cool with me. Someone like Tony, working with Josh, brought a lot to the process. They collaborated on a lot of the visual stuff, and it was more fun than anything.

You’re coming to Australia for an exciting tour - how do you feel about touring at this point? Do you still love it?

I do. You’ve been asking a lot about the record, and I think it’s important to have both sides of it. Recording and making the art is a big process. It’s very detail-oriented and takes a long time. We toil over these records. The live part is where you get to take it further. They’re both a give and take situation; you can’t have one without the other. We’re ultimately a live band. We’re trying to capture that in the studio, but I think live is where we ultimately shine.

When you’re recording and writing music, are you thinking about how a song will work live, or are you just thinking about it as a recording?

We don’t really think about how it’s going to come across live. We just make it into whatever we can. Right now, we’re going over the new stuff and thinking, “Oh my God, what do we do? How do we do this?” There’s a lot of figuring out parts and working out how to spread everything out. It’s a good thing that Dean and I both play keyboards and guitar. Between the three of us—Josh, Dean, and me - we pretty much cover everything that’s in the songs.

There are lots of vocals, too. We don’t let the creative process in the studio stop just because we might be wondering how we’re going to do something live. We figure it out, and I think that’s important.

It’s interesting because I speak to a lot of rising artists, and I think during the pandemic, when people were making music without having to play it live, they started creating songs without that consideration. Now, a lot of them are obsessed with making sure they can perform their music live.

It is interesting, yeah. I remember that time. With Queens, we were making the last record, In Times New Roman..., and that was pretty much us live. We didn’t really have that problem with that record. It was very raw, brutal, and just us. But I did a couple of records during that time, and I had that same feeling of, “It doesn’t matter. No one’s going to see this.”

What have you been listening to? Are there any rising bands you’re excited about, or any artists you’ve had your eye or ear on?

It’s funny because we’re actually playing with Tropical Fuck Storm, which is a band I discovered recently. They’re not really new, though; they’ve been around for a while. I think of music in terms of what’s new to me, so they’re new to me, and I really like them.

Ethel Cain is new to me, too. I like her record Perverts. I think it’s super cool, spooky, and haunting.

There’s also a guy named James who plays guitar for The Pretenders. He has a band called His Lordship. They’re just fucking fun and cool, kind of garage-y. I’m always looking around. Like I said, whatever’s new to me feels new, even if most of it has been around for a while. Who do you like?

Hmm right now, as their album is about to come out, top of my mind is Fontaines D.C. I’ve been listening to them for years, I'm a big fan. I’ve been listening to a lot of Irish bands. There are so many great bands coming out of there right now, and I’ve happened to interview a lot of them, so it’s been a lot of that.

See, you’re way more on the cutting edge than I am! But yes, I’ve heard of all that wave of artists, and I dig them as well.

I’m super excited for everyone to hear your record.

Thank you for listening, for sure. We’ll see you out there in Australia.

Listen to Queens of the Stone Age HERE.

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